With mid-term elections fueling mobilization efforts across the political spectrum, immigration policy is at the fore of debates and conversations at the federal, state and local levels. In FY 2013, 368,644 individuals were deported, continuing the trend of annual deportations of over 350,000 individuals since 2009 (U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement). At the same time, an increase of legislation at the state and local levels has targeted undocumented immigrants, with 184 laws and 253 resolutions related to immigration enacted in 2013 (National Conference of State Legislatures). For undocumented migrants, these policies result in an uneven and often precarious experience. A “patch quilt of relatively safe and dangerous spaces” has been produced, as James Quesada points out, in the exciting new issue of City & Society on immigration enforcement.

The essays in the April issue of City & Society delve into the everyday challenges experienced by undocumented immigrants across the United States. They also describe the strategies employed by immigrant communities to negotiate practices of enforcement and highlight immigrant-organizing practices that construct conceptions of human rights and justice. Issue editors, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz and Laura Nussbaum-Barberena note in their Introduction,* “Perhaps most importantly, these articles reveal some of the human faces behind a “post-9/11” enforcement-oriented landscape and contribute analyses and models for action that can be engaged at the community level across the United States.”